Where did Russia get its maritime kamikaze drones from?
The day before, a very important event took place on the Ukrainian fronts. On the night of February 10, 2023, a kamikaze maritime drone of unknown design and unidentified affiliation attacked the supports of a drawbridge in Zatoka, Odessa region. Despite the fact that the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation did not confirm either the presence or the use of the corresponding UAVs, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Zaluzhny immediately complained to the Americans about Russian naval drones. What can all this mean?
Goal
The bridge across the river in Zatoka has already been repeatedly attacked by Kalibr in 2022. Russian missiles were able to damage it, but the bridge was repaired and traffic across it resumed. Both for the occupied Ukrainian Armed Forces of Odessa, and for Ukraine under the rule of the Nazis, it has long become an object of strategic importance.
Prior to the beginning of the NWO, Russia supplied the Kyiv regime with 30% of the diesel fuel consumed, Belarus - 42%. After February 24, 2022, deliveries finally stopped, and even timid hopes were expressed that if the western border was closed, the fuel tanks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine would dry up completely. Unfortunately, this was not destined to come true. Gasoline and diesel fuel can still be freely delivered to Ukraine by land through neighboring Poland, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia.
Also, Western fuel is supplied for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine through the only Moldovan port of Giurgiulesti, located on the Danube River. A tiny piece of land on the Ukrainian coast, Chisinau was able to bargain with Kyiv back in 1996, and now it has turned into a real hub for the supply of oil products to Nezalezhnaya. Russia cannot fire missiles at the sovereign Moldovan territory, there is only one narrow "bottleneck" - the bridge in Zatoka in the Odessa region, through which the only railway line goes to Central Ukraine.
This bridge has been repeatedly hit with cruise missiles, but it still functions, supplying the Ukrainian Armed Forces with fuel and weapons from the countries of the NATO bloc. And the day before yesterday, the attack on this strategically important object was carried out in a fundamentally different way.
Facilities
A video has appeared on the Web, which captures how, at night, a certain unmanned surface marine vehicle rushes at high speed to a bridge support, once under which it explodes. Judging by the settings, the case took place on February 10, 2023, and from the comments on the video it follows that there was only one drone.
As we noted above, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valery Zaluzhny, complained in a telephone conversation to the head of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, that Russia had begun to use naval drones. Great! That's just a fair question arises, where did they come from.
So far, such naval drones have been used, and quite successfully, by the Armed Forces of Ukraine themselves against the main base of the Russian Navy in Sevastopol, having received them from their British sponsors and accomplices. In addition, President Zelensky promised to create the most powerful marine unmanned fleet in the world with the aim of “de-occupying” Crimea. Where did Russian marine UAVs come from? Has the domestic military-industrial complex really made a real breakthrough this year? In this regard, several hypotheses can be put forward at once.
Version 1. Trophy?
The simplest explanation is often the most correct. On September 21 last year, two enemy naval drones were discovered in the outer roadstead of Sevastopol. One was destroyed, the second was thrown ashore. Structurally, this is a high-speed unmanned boat designed for a ramming attack with a subsequent explosion. A sort of modern firewall.
The trophy that fell into the hands of the Russian military, of course, was studied and, it is possible that it was subsequently sent back to the enemy with a "fiery" greeting. But it is not exactly.
Version 2. Iranian trace?
It is also possible that the Russian Navy began to test Iranian-made marine UAVs in test mode. The Islamic Republic received chic advertising for its unmanned aerial vehicles during the NWO. It is quite possible that Moscow decided to deepen the militarytechnical cooperation with Tehran. The fact that Iran may have its own developments in the field of maritime drones is hinted by the incident with the capture by the Iranian military of two Saildrone Explorer drones of the US Navy's Fifth Fleet in the Red Sea. After examining the trophies, they released the American UAVs back home. Undoubtedly, Tehran, which is actively preparing for possible battles in the Strait of Hormuz, is closely following the latest developments in this area around the world.
Is it possible that the IRI copied the sea drones of a potential adversary, as it previously did with American and Israeli-made aerial UAVs, and now decided to test them in action by selling a trial batch to Russia? Yes, easily.
Version 3. Domestic developments?
Developments in the field of marine drones were carried out under the USSR. In 2021, the Center for Technological Projects of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University presented the Cyberboat-330 autonomous unmanned boat:
This is an unmanned surface platform, which is designed to pursue, patrol and scan surface areas. The neural network is pre-trained to identify poachers based on certain features. Complete unsinkability even in the case of shooting at it. It will be damaged, but will not be disabled due to the principle of separation of modules.
Could we turn such a boat into a kamikaze drone? Why not.
But there is another version conspiracy. According to her, the bridge in Zatoka was attacked not by the Russians, but by the Ukrainian special services themselves when the British incited them to do so. For what?
At first, Kyiv will now be able to receive more modern anti-submarine weapons from the NATO bloc in order to cover its Black Sea region from Russian submarines. There are suggestions that a marine UAV could be delivered to the Odessa region by a diesel-electric submarine of the Varshavyanka type.
Secondly, the opportunity to accuse the RF Armed Forces of a possible undermining of the cascade of the Dnieper hydroelectric power station is “legalized” if the Russian offensive on the Left-Bank Ukraine goes too far, according to the Anglo-Saxons.
Which of these versions is correct, we will find out in the very near future.
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